December 5 – Day 6
Micah 5:1-5
The Lord said to Micah, “Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses…”
Micah was a prophet of Judah who is considered a ‘minor prophet’ as his Book is small and is seen as a complimentary writing to the more substantial Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. However, Micah, serving as prophet in the same timeframe as Isaiah (roughly 740 BC to 690 BC) was as influential to the Kings of Judah as Isaiah was, especially to King Hezekiah during the Assyrian siege by Sennacherib.
Micah was considered in his day to be what we would term ‘hillbilly’, being not of Jerusalem but of Moresheth-Gath in Philistine territory. Yet Micah was very knowledgeable and respected in the Word of God, and his prophecies were highly regarded. In Jeremiah 26:17, Micah warned Hezekiah of Judah’ impending fall to the Babylonians, and Jesus Himself quoted Micah 7:6 in Matthew 10:35-36, declaring He did not come to seek compromise but to divide and separate those who (as wheat) accept Him and those who (as chaff) do not, even if it split families apart.
In Micah 5:1-5, Micah, receiving the Word of God directly, at first receives ‘double’ or ‘two-in-one’ prophecy; a prophecy first pertaining of the near future, the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, and perhaps also of the takeover by the Babylonians approximately 120 years later after Micah’s prophecy.
Israel is laid in siege that is broken by God, through his Angel in the slaughter of the 185,000 Assyrians. But 120 years later, Jerusalem is abandoned when the Judean people are exiled to Babylon. But, over 70 years, a new generation of Israelites are born in captivity, and through the efforts of Nehemiah, Ezra and others the Judeans return to Jerusalem.
But Micah’s prophecy is also one of the distant future. He writes that Bethlehem, a small village in the land of Judah, will come to be the birthplace of a ruler over Israel. This Ruler comes from an ‘ancient lineage’, older than the lineage of Jesse & David as prophesized by the prophet Isaiah. This Ruler is of course Jesus, who will be born by His mother, Mary.
This Ruler, Jesus, is the one who is that Great Shepherd to His people, defending them and caring for them and their needs. He is covered in the Holiness and Majesty of the Lord, and His rule will extend to every corner of the world. Though Israel would see, after the Roman sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Diaspora or scattering of the Jews; through His Rule the people today are returning, the Jews returning to Israel and both Jews and Gentiles to God through the Gospel of Jesus.
When it appears the evil that permeates our world is about to win, Jesus will return in His Glory to provide us His defense of us by defeating both sin and death, and provide His peace over us who accept Him as Lord for all Eternity. This is the Hope and the Faith that we must always hold onto, and never take it for granted.
